Government plans to encourage more doctors to opt out of Working Time Directive

The government has said that it will consider how to encourage more doctors to opt out of working time restrictions established to comply with the European Working Time Directive. The Department of Health in England said that it had accepted six recommendations made by an independent taskforce that looked into the directive’s implementation. The directive was fully incorporated into the NHS in 2009 and states that trainee doctors can work for a maximum of 48 hours a week over a six month period. The taskforce found that the directive had adversely affected training in certain medical …